This invention relates to devices that reduce the possibility of damage from wakes from vessels. More particularly, this invention dissipates the energy of wakes produced by high speed vessels.
Air cushion vehicles like the landing craft air cushion (LCAC), hydrofoils, surface effect ships, and wave piercing vessels have produced wakes during their high speed transit for as long as they have been around. While, at the very least, these wakes are annoying, they are dangerous and can damage moored craft and installations in shallower regions near the water's edge and can erode unprotected stretches of shoreline.
Research has proven that when high speed vessels reach a critical speed, a soliton, or solitary wave, is produced by the bow, and it has been observed in test tanks or confined areas of water such as canals. The solitary wave of the wake has a crest, or peak, above the water, but no trough and carries significant energy so that it is often referred to as a "mini tsunami." These solitary waves are actually a movement of water, as compared to a conventional wave that has a crest and a trough and surges and retreats at the shore. Despite their power, the solitary waves may be only a couple of centimeters high in the deep ocean, however; when they come into shallower water, they build in size and steepen-up to become like a tsunami in shallow water. Consequently, solitary waves, or wakes build up as a function of not only the speed of the vessel that produces them but also the depth of the water that they are passing through. While nearly all boats produce solitary waves of different magnitudes, the solitary waves produced by high speed ferries and LCACs are particularly destructive in bays, straits, and other shallow regions adjacent water passageways.
Under maritime law, owners of vessels are legally responsible for the wakes of their vessels. Admiralty claims are often filed for damage caused by wakes from high speed vessels. One way to avoid these claims, of course, is to reduce the speed, but lower speed operation compromises one of the strongest features for using these types of vessels. The speed of the high speed ferry Chinook which shuttles crew members from vessels between Bremerton and Everett Washington has been slowed to 12 knots when it passes through Rich Passage, and passenger ferries between the UK and the Netherlands have been both rerouted and transit at lower speeds.
Thus, in accordance with this inventive concept, a need has been recognized in the state of the art for a barrier that dissipates the energy of wakes in shallow regions along transit routes of high speed